Natick's Taylor recalled as a teacher

The story of Tim Taylor’s life in hockey spans decades, covers countries, and impacts thousands of lives. That story came to its conclusion Saturday night, when Taylor, who had been battling cancer, passed away at age 71.

The story of Tim Taylor’s life in hockey spans decades, covers countries, and impacts thousands of lives.

That story came to its conclusion Saturday night, when Taylor, who had been battling cancer, passed away at age 71.

It included stops at Harvard, where he played during college and later coached, the USHL, where he played after college, and Yale, where he coached from 1976-2006, winning 342 games in 28 seasons. During his time at Yale, he was named ECAC Coach of the Year award twice (1991-92, 1997-98). That honor now bears his name.

He was also involved with the USA Hockey program, and was head coach of the 1994 Olympic team that competed in Lillehammer, Norway. Taylor was also an assistant coach on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team.

Impressive doesn’t even begin to describe his list of accomplishments. Making it all the more amazing is the fact that Taylor achieved all of this from very humble beginnings. Growing up in South Natick in the 1950s, he began his life in hockey like many aspiring skaters in town – in the Natick Comets youth hockey program.

Years later, in the 1970s, he gave back to the program that had given him so much, returning as a coach.

"He was long before my time," said current Natick High School coach Karl Infanger. "I never really crossed paths with him, even when I was playing at Merrimack. I will say that everything I’ve heard about him has been very respectful, and as far as the program and the Natick Comets program goes, we wouldn’t be where we are today without the likes of him.

"I don’t think they realize all the people who have come before them and laid the stonework for all the programs that they have."

One man who will never forget Taylor’s impact is Bill Lacouture, who was head coach of the Natick hockey team for over 30 years.

"Oh God, this is awful," said Lacouture when informed of Taylor’s passing. "I knew Timmy quite well. We had a hockey camp in Natick for years and years and years back in 70s and 80s, and this is just terrible. He was just a tremendous, tremendous human being, and boy was he ahead of his time in terms of hockey."

Lacouture recalled Taylor taking trips to Russia during his years as a player and coach, and said he brought back much of what he learned from the international hockey power, becoming one of the first people to apply it in the States. This included dry land strength and agility training.

Much of that took place at the summer camp the two ran together, which was a major attraction for hockey players across Massachusetts. The camp, starting for players as young as six and running through the high school level, regularly attracted between 450 and 500 attendees per summer.

Page 2 of 2 -
One of them was Mike Eruzione of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" Gold Medal winning Olympic team, who tweeted "R I P Coach Taylor and thank you for giving so many of us a chance to develop and play the game Always remember the Natick Summer league."

The goal of the camp was to supply hands-on, quality instruction, with the player-to-coach ratio never exceeding eight-to-one. And Taylor did whatever he could to make sure anyone who wanted to attend could.

"You talk about a man who dedicated his life to helping young men become better people," said Lacouture. "He just did so much for so many, and he was really way ahead of others and way ahead of his time.

"The camp was literally filled all the time. Timmy would really extend himself to underprivileged kids who would come from everywhere, whether it was poorer sections of Boston, no matter where, at reduced to no cost."

The condolences began pouring out via Twitter on Saturday, a mix of well known and obscure names alike. They continued to come in waves through Sunday evening, with each one helping to paint a picture of just how many lives Taylor had touched.

"Timmy was very forward thinking and just a special human being," said Lacouture. "Just really caring and everything and with the knowledge and foresight. Timmy was very special to not only the people who knew and associated with him, but also with the kids. He just did so much, he was unbelievable."

Craig Gilvarg can be reached at 508-626-4405 or cgilvarg@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @CraigGilvarg.